How Does Religion Matter? Causal Effects of Religion in International Relations.

This paper provides a critical overview on the growing subfield of research on religion and international relations (IR). In adressing the definitional challenges related to integrating different dimensions of religion into the field, the present paper draws on metadebates on the definition and boundaries of religion within the established diciplines of religion studies. This leads to the identification of three security-relevant conceptualizations of religion, covering different methodological approaches and analytical interests: namely, religion as belief and community, religion as a power, and religion as a claim. The advantages, methodological shortcoming and promises of each trend is discussed in order to upgrade the field's abilities to deal with the sui generis aspects of religion in a causative but non-deterministic way. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]